The Tygerberg Hospital School continues to fill an academic void in the lives of children who are in hospital for extended periods.
The school, which has been in existence since 1959, consists of a primary school section and a high school section, located on the lower ground floor at Tygerberg Hospital.
The school caters for approximately 45-50 learners daily, ranging from Grade R to Grade 12.
Children who suffer from illnesses such as cancer, heart, lung, kidney, liver and orthopaedic conditions attend classes.
The teachers collect the children from the wards in the morning and accompany them to the school. Children who are unable to leave their wards receive bedside education.
Some children attend Tygerberg Hospital School for a few days to several months, and for some, even years.
All classes are multigrade and multilingual, with modules compiled for every grade according to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS).
The school also caters for learners who are well enough to go home but cannot attend mainstream schools. Some children have been out of school for very long periods of time and are too old to join their grades. These children follow an Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) stream at the school.
Tygerberg Hospital School also has a specialised unit for psychiatric patients called iThuba, which is the Xhosa word for “opportunity”.
iThuba was established in 2004 to accommodate a maximum of 15 learners, up to Grade 12, with psychiatric illnesses.
“Previously, many of these learners lost irretrievable ground of their educational development while spending prolonged periods in hospital, and many relapsed when they returned to their school of origin, while many simply never returned to school and became vulnerable to negative environmental influences, including substance abuse and exploitation,” said the Western Cape Education Department.
Learners begin attending iThuba as soon as they can after admission and after their discharge, while recovering and still too vulnerable to attend mainstream school. They continue attending iThuba if they are able to do so daily.
“This is a unique unit and the only one in the Western Cape. The main goal is to assist the learners to be integrated back into a mainstream school, college, labour market and the community. The support the unit offers to these learners plays a big role in their recovery programme,” the Department said.
An Occupational Therapist, sponsored by the Tygerberg Children’s Trust, comes in twice a week to give extra support to iThuba learners. The learners who attend this part of the school have diagnoses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), eating disorders, etc.
Ithuba was initially conceptualised as a bridging facility for learners who, once fully recovered, could then return to mainstream education. However, over the years, it became clear that recovery was not complete enough for all learners to return to mainstream schooling, and some have completed their education at iThuba.
“The unit is the only one of its kind in South Africa at present, serving patients from throughout the Western Cape, and represents a model that needs to be replicated in all centres where there are psychiatric inpatients services for children and adolescents.
“The ultimate objective is to enable the learners to resume their school careers with ease following discharge from hospital,” the WCED added.
The Tygerberg Hospital School also caters for an additional 20 learners with Specific Barriers to Learning.
The paediatric and neurological doctors of Tygerberg Hospital refer the pre-school learners. Apraxia of speech is a specific speech disorder. Children with this disorder have great difficulty planning and producing the precise, highly refined and specific series of movement of the tongue, lips, jaw and palate that are necessary for intelligible speech.
The Grade R classes focus on language, with the school offering speech therapy during class time to these learners.
Volunteers enhance the overall learning experience by presenting a variety of additional activities such as kinetics, karate, art and reading sessions aimed at cultivating a love for reading. The objective is to enable learners to resume their school career with ease following discharge from hospital.